How Does Generative AI Search Work & Which Companies Are Using It?

Generative AI is all the rage these days. Many useful applications of AI have started to pop up, from art creation to pretty much anything you can think of. There is one specific application that’s going big, though. So big, in fact, that Big Tech companies have started to jump on it.

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We’re talking, of course, about AI chats and searching. But what exactly is generative AI search, and which companies are using it?

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What Is Generative AI Search?

First off, we need to explain what generative AI search is. You’re probably familiar with the concept of generative AI—it’s a type of artificial intelligence that can generate content for you, from images to text, to music, and everything in between. It started catching on in late 2021 to early 2022, but it’s matured to the point it can do some really amazing—and occasionally creepy—things.

But generative AI search is a proposition that, once it matures, can be greatly useful to users. Basically, it’s like a search engine that can give you concise answers to questions generated by artificial intelligence based on the pool of knowledge that specific AI has access to. It can parse concise user questions and try to come up with answers that will be useful without necessarily linking to a website or portal.

In a way, this is pretty much the same way ChatGPT works . Right now, you can pull up ChatGPT and ask it questions. For example, you can ask it to whip up a recipe with a number of ingredients, or you can ask it for complicated questions about the ins and outs of chemistry.

But generative AI search aims to use that kind of output generation to replace all, or most, of the currently searched queries through regular search engines. And it aims to do a lot more. It’s, essentially, putting the capabilities of ChatGPT, and all its power, at the fingertips of most regular users.

How Is Generative AI Search Different From Regular Search?

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There are a few ways in which generative AI search is vastly different from regular search.

Right now, if you pull up Google and enter a search term, it’ll return a number of search results of different things it found through the internet matching your search. Search engines in their current state are, essentially, directories of websites. They do the best job possible at indexing billions of websites and looking through each and every one of them to give you the exact one you’re looking for.

Search engines are neat. They’ve been improved over the years, so it’s even easier to search for specific information, and the results are not just a blank, boring-looking list of websites. For one, if you’re asking it a question, it may pull up a quote from a website in an attempt to answer that question. And if you look up a company, place, or celebrity, it’ll pull up a side panel with condensed information about what or who it is, and links to find more information.

Generative AI search wants to be the next step forward in this direction. Instead of pulling up millions of search results, your query gets fed through an AI that will try to help you the best way it can. If you have a question, it’ll pull up information from its pool of knowledge to answer it, and if you want it to help you out with something, it will try and do so to the best of its ability. Basically, it’s ChatGPT, except it looks like a browser.

It has a few challenges ahead, and it might not replace regular search engines entirely as they will still have their purpose, but it might become a nice compliment that will make them way more useful whenever the technology is mature and released.

Which Companies Are Using Generative AI Search?

Right now, the generative AI search battle is being fought between Google and Microsoft.

Microsoft announced the release of “the new Bing ,” a new version of the company’s search engine that will provide you not only with the regular Bing search experience but also with a complimentary, ChatGPT-like window where you can ask “real questions” and get “complete answers.” You can ask it for help with your daily life, or just simple questions that you might or might not find using regular Bing.

In addition, “the new Microsoft Edge” is a revamped version of Microsoft’s browser with this AI technology built in. So instead of heading over to the Bing browser, you can pull up a sidebar in Edge where you can input whatever you want the AI to help you with. It can come in handy if, for example, you’re writing an email and struggling to find the right words.

Google, on the other hand, is also coming up with new AI features of its own. Google launched its ChatGPT-like chatbot called Bard , but eventually, the company wants to bring AI features into its main products as well. This includes the company’s regular search experience, where AI-generated answers will complement, not replace, regular search results.

When Will I Be Able to Use Generative AI Search?

Right now, you’re able to play around with ChatGPT. It’s been doing some amazing things, and you can ask it to come up with answers to your questions now. It has a few limitations—it is, of course, a product in testing, its data range is limited to the end of 2021 (at the time of writing), and it might occasionally say inaccurate or false things. But it’s a fun product to play around with.

As for actual AI-powered search engines, you can now join the waitlist for “the new Bing” at Microsoft’s website. As for Google, there’s no waitlist, but the company might eventually open up its work on AI sometime over the next few months.

Generative AI Search is Great

Generative AI search still needs work to become truly useful, but it is already a promising prospect. We can’t wait to hear more about it as work continues on AI products.

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